Soot remover



' heaters soot removal is generally efiected by art as mahogany acid-The t c de at ves application of the necessary quantity of soot moverand the ignition temperature of soot re- Patented Dec. 27,1938 214L848UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,141,848 3001' nnMovEn Elmer Wade Adams,Hammond, Frank K. Ovitz, Whiting, and Edwin G. Wiley, Hammond, Ind.,assignors to Standard Oil Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation ofIndiana No Drawing. Application June 29, 1938, Serlal No. 87,954

'12 Claims. (01. 44-8) This invention relates to improvements in soot ul o certain oi -solub e compou ds wh ch are removers, and in particular,soot removers volatilized by the heat of combustion and deadaptedfor-use in oil burning furnace posited upon the soot formation. Thesecom- It is common practice in coal burning furnaces pounds per s tcompounds sult n ro to periodically apply soot removers to the coal thecombustion t e eof. whe dep s ted up bed for the purpose of removingsoot deposits the soot p s ss t p p ty f lowering th in th f r fluepipes, chimney, t w ignition temperature of the soot and thereby appliedto the hot coal bed the soot remover is facilitates the burning,thereofsatisfactory volatilized and when deposited upon th ot resultsmay be obtained by adding to the fuel formations, lowers the ignitiontemperature f oil certain metallic derivatives, in particular the 10 thelatter thereby facilitating the burning thereopp calcium. lead and Zinsderivatives of of. The known soot removers are substantially solublepetroleum acids, particularly the oil-soluall inorganic compoundsinsoluble in oil or orl ul n o d naphthenic acids, h f r er ganicsolvents. For this reason, in oil burning being more popularly known inthe oil refining spraying an aqueous solution of the soot remover f p rum acids resulting from the Oxidation on the soot deposit, and with ahot flre in the of petroleum products may be used.

heater burn off the soot. This method is not We have further discoveredthat the addition entirely satisfactory since it requires added labor ofa mixture of a chlorinated orga Compound and time. Furthermore, sootdeposits are fresuch as ethylene chloride, para-di-chlorobenzene,

quently inaccessible for spraying. chlorinated wax and the like and anoil-soluble It is therefore an object of this invention to metallicmahogany soap or naphthenate to a fuel provide a soot remover soluble infurnace oil. oil is very effective in removing and/or preventing Anotherobject of this invention is to provide soot deposits. The desirableresults obtained are a furnace oil capable of removing and/orpreattributed to the conversion of the metallic venting soot deposits.naphthenates or sulfonates to metallic chlorides A further object ofthis invention is to proupon the burning of the fuel oil and the deposivide an improved method of removing soot detion of the latter on thesoot formations whereby posits from oil burning heaters. the ignitiontemperature of the same is mate- Other objects and advantages of thisinvention rially lowered.

will become apparent from the following descrip- The effectiveness ofsoot removers is indicated tion thereof. by a reduction in the ignitiontemperature of soot The formation of soot deposits in oil burningdeposits, the ignition temperature being the lowheaters presents aproblem more difficult to comest temperature at which the soot ignitesand bat than the deposition of soot in coal burning continues to burn.In the following table are tabheaters. As aforementioned, soot in thelatter ulated the ignition temperature of soot deposited type of heatermay be readily removed by the upon wire screens in the absence of a sootreremover to the burning coal bed. This method sulting from the burningof a furnace oil concannot be followed in the oil burning heater and,taining some of the aforementioned addition com- 40 until the presentinvention, the use of soot repounds.

movers in such units had been limited to spraying an aqueous solution ofthe soot remover on Average the soot deposits. This requires theshutting Ignition ductionin 1 down of the unit for a period of time sothat the Swmmm 2L1? 86%;.

solution of soot remover may be applied. This ineflicient and timeconsuming procedure is, at

best, not completely successful since those soot N 124312285 F.

deposits which cannot treated by spraying are 2 20% 501 tion M dmahogany soap in not removed and continue to accumulate until furnaceoil 700-150 540 operation of the heater is substantially inter- 3 430fered with. 4 20?,solutioiricoppermahoganysoapm 440 We have discoveredthat t p e o t 5 refit-ti htentat;:::::::::::::::: 825-83 2 415 removaland/or prevention 1n oil burning h t. 6 No.4+dichlorobenzene 700- 554ers may be effectively solved by adding to the 55 While the aboveresults were obtained with a 20% solution of metallic organicderivatives in furnace oil, satisfactory results may be obtained usingfrom 0.5 to 30% in furnace oil. When a fuel oil containing theaforementioned compounds is used continuously a smaller percent may beemployed as a soot preventer, but when the fuel oil containing theaforementioned compounds is used only periodically to remove sootdeposits, fuel oil containing a larger percentage of these compoundsshould be used. Although the lead derivatives give better results, thisadvantage is to some extent off-set by the toxic nature of leadcompounds. Extra caution should therefore be taken when the leadderivatives are employed.

While we have specified above certain preferred compounds, thisinvention contemplates the use of other soil-soluble organo-metalliccompounds, such as the oil soluble metallic derivatives alcohols,amines, ketones, and esters in furnace oils for the purpose hereinspecified.

While this invention has been described in connection with preferredexamples thereof, the same is not limited thereto except as defined inthe following claims which should be given the broadest interpretationpermitted by the prior art.

We claim:

1. A liquid composition for removing soot from oil burning furnacescomprising a. fuel oil and an oil-soluble metallic derivative of apetroleum acid having as the metal constituent an element selected fromthe group consisting of copper, calcium, lead and zinc.

2. A liquid composition for removing soot from oil burning furnacescomprising a fuel oil and a metallic mahogany soap selected from thegroup consisting of copper mahogany, calcium mahogany soap, leadmahogany soap and zinc mahogany soap.

3. A liquid composition for removing soot from oil burning furnacescomprising a fuel oil and a copper mahogany soap.

4. A liquid composition for removing soot from oil burning furnacescomprising a fuel oil and a zinc mahogany soap.

5. A liquid composition for removing soot from oil burning furnacescomprising a fuel oil and a metallic naphthenate selected from the groupconsisting of copper naphthenate, calcium naphthenate, lead naphthenateand zinc naphthenate.

6. A liquid composition for removing soot from oil burning furnacescomprising a fuel oil and a copper naphthenate.

7. A liquid composition for removing soot from oil burning furnacescomprising a fuel oil, an oilsoluble metallic derivative of a petroleumacid having as themetal constituent an element selected from the groupconsisting of copper, calcium, lead and zinc, compound.

8. A liquid composition for removing soot from oil burning furnacescomprising a fuel 011, an oilsoluble metallic derivative of a petroleumacid having as the metal constituent an element selected from the groupconsisting of copper, calcium, lead and zinc, and a chlorinated organiccompound.

9. A liquid composition for removing soot from oil burning furnacescomprising a fuel oil, copper mahogany soap and chlorinated wax.

10. A liquid composition for removing soot from oil burning furnacescomprising a fuel oil, copper mahogany soap and dichlorobenzene.

11. The method of removing soot from an oil burning furnace whichcomprises burning in said furnace a furnace oil to 0.5 to 30% coppermahogany soap.

12. The method of removing soot from an oil burning furnace whichcomprises burning in said furnace a furnace oil to which has been added0.5 to 30% of a mixture comprising copper mahogany soap and achlorinated organic compound.

ELMER WADE ADAMS. FRANK K. OVITZ. EDWIN G. WILEY.

and a halogenated organic which has been added

